Definition
a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung.
via Merriam-Webster.
Origin
Sylvia Wright misheard a lyric in the traditional 17th-century ballad "The Earl of Murray" when she was a child, and loved her romanticized version so much she believed it more.
The correct line is: "And laid him on the green".
The line Wright heard is: "And Lady Mondegreen".
In 1950, she wrote an essay about it and coined the term "mondegreen" for words or phrases that come from such mixups and mishearings.
Prompt
1. Use the phrase "[s/he] laid him on the green" in a poem. Put it smack in the middle of the poem and fill in the rest around it. You could try to approach it like a mind-map: put that line in the middle and let all other lines be offshoots that frame it.
2. Brainstorm your own mondegreens. Try to make a list of the original phrases and the mondegreen that came from your mixup. If you don't have any, let your mind wander and make some creative leaps and invent your own. Sprinkle them into your poetry or write a poem devoted entirely to mondegreens if you're feeling ambitious.
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